The upstate congressman, who represents the counties surrounding Buffalo, still plans to fight the charges and won’t resign. He also vowed to serve out the final four and a half months of his term.

But within hours, a dozen local Republicans started vying to become his replacement.

Getting the congressman’s name off the ballot will require some fancy legal footwork by the district’s eight GOP county leaders, who will choose a replacement candidate without a primary or any other input from voters.

Under New York State’s byzantine election laws, the party has until Sept. 19 to try to make a swap.

“They want to hit the reset button on someone they already nominated,” he complained to CNN on Saturday. “They’re going to reach deep into their bag of tricks.”

Collins, one of President Trump’s earliest and most ardent supporters, said the opposition party “would like nothing more than to elect an ‘Impeach Trump’ Democrat” in his place.

That’s “something that neither our country or my party can afford,” he said in the statement explaining his decision.

Trump won Collins’ congressional district by a 24-point margin in 2016 – but Collins’ arrest and indictment give Dems an unexpected chance to flip the seat from red to blue in this year’s hotly contested midterm elections.